Many years ago I came across a small book by Louise Hay called Colors and Numbers. She explained a system for using numerology to calculate some personal yearly, monthly, and daily numbers, then mapping them to colors and to themes. So, for me, August 2021 is a blue month, with creativity as its theme. Let’s see what I can do with that!
In July 2021 I finally got to go back to an in person art workshop. Even better, it was back in Atlanta with the tireless and talented Chery Baird through Spruill Arts Center. And to top it off, my dear friend Deb Lehman was there painting right along side me. I’ve taken this workshop,before, and the format means that you start five or six paintings, and may or may not finish them because we work in rounds of prompts.
The fun comes from the variety of mark making, materials, and layers that goes into each one, and even if we’re all following the same general directions no two pieces ever come out looking the same general directions, no two pieces ever come out looking the same. I still have A few unfinished pieces from this session, and to be honest a few unfinished pieces from sessions before, but I feel pretty reinvigorated.
I love living in Chicago, but I do miss my Atlanta quilting community. Several years ago, a small neighborhood bee I was part of decided to try an experiment, combining a book club with our quilting challenge. To keep it manageable we picked a 12 x 12 format. This is a little piece I made after we read a book called The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell.
12 x 12 was a popular size for a number of challenge groups, and every year a local organization called the Southeastern Fiber Arts Association held a 12 x 12 pinup show for all fiber artists. The book club quilt challenge didn’t go on for very long, but SEFAA’s 12 x 12 pinup show has persisted, even going virtual during Covid.
One of the perks of being in Ali Manning’s Handmade Book Club are occasional workshops with teachers she brings in. One recent Sunday, Bel Mills of Scrap Paper Circus led a workshop using business reply envelopes to make this mail art wallet. Lots of ways you could take the collage design with this, and lots of possible uses to keep bits and pieces organized. It also gave me an excuse to buy and try a Crop-a-Dial for the little rivet closure. And then there was the new experience with clear gesso. So yes, it’s intended to be a project focused on up cycling, but no stash busting project feels complete without a new purchase or two! I love a workshop where you can actually complete the whole project by the time the session is over. Take a look at the video to see how this one works by clicking on the photo below.
I recently spent a delightful afternoon taking a class from Carolina Oneto (#carolina_oneto) learning this modern version of the English Paper Piecing technique applied to creating tranparent effects. I’ve worked with transparencies with paper and fiber, but this was my first time in fabric, and also my first time with EPP. I’d mostly seen it used with hexie projects, which impress me but don’t tempt me to try.
Carolina is from Chile, living now in Brazil, and the students were from around the world. Just one of the silver linings to the pandemic – putting teachers like her within reach of students around the world. I’m so grateful so many of them made the effort to amp up their on-line presence.